Quote 1
"It makes me vomit," she went on, "to think that I am going to have to put up with a load of garbage like you in my school for the next six years. I can see that I'm going to have to expel as many of you as possible as soon as possible to save myself from going round the bend." (13.7)
Unlike Miss Honey (and Mrs. Phelps, too), the Trunchbull is pretty much the worst teacher Shmoop can imagine. She sees a school as a place made worse by kids, rather than as a place designed to nurture them. Can you imagine if your principal called kids vomitous? Or garbage? Can you spell fired?
Quote 2
"[…] My idea of a perfect school, Miss Honey, is one that has no children in it at all. One of these days I shall start up a school like that. I think it will be very successful." (14.3)
Here, we get a handle on what a bad educator the Trunchbull is. She thinks the best school will be one with no kids. None. Of course this is hilarious, because the idea itself makes absolutely zero sense. A school with no students isn't a school at all. It's just an empty building. And what, in the world, is the point of that?
Quote 3
"…I have discovered, Miss Honey, during my long career as a teacher that a bad girl is a far more dangerous creature than a bad boy. What's more, they're much harder to squash. Squashing a bad girl is like trying to squash a bluebottle. You bang down on it and the darn thing isn't there. Nasty dirty things, little girls are. Glad I never was one." (8.11)
How can the Trunchbull have never been a little girl? She's female, right, and she can't have been born at six feet tall and giant-size. And although she calls little girls nasty and hard to squash, we know that these adjectives apply to her just as much. She's the one who's awful and can't be squashed. And she squashes little girls all the time. Just look at poor Amanda Thripp.
Quote 4
The children's eyes were riveted on the Headmistress. "I don't like small people," she was saying. "Small people should never be seen by anybody. They should be kept out of sight in boxes like hairpins and buttons. I cannot for the life of me see why children have to take so long to grow up. I think they do it on purpose." (13.68)
Boy, it's getting pretty clear just how unimportant and insignificant the Trunchbull thinks children are. It's hardly the attitude you'd expect from someone who's been entrusted with running an entire elementary school, but it's totally the attitude you'd expect from someone as mean as the Trunchbull.
Quote 5
[The Trunchbull] said, "I have never been able to understand why small children are so disgusting. They are the bane of my life. They are like insects. They should be got rid of as early as possible. We get rid of flies with fly-spray and by hanging up fly-paper. I have often thought of inventing a spray for getting rid of small children. How splendid it would be to walk into this classroom with a gigantic spray-gun in my hands and start pumping it. […]" (14.1)
The Trunchbull really knows how to pay a compliment, doesn't she? Kids are about as useful to her as the pests that invade a farmer's crops. Why else would she be suggesting adults should spray them with poison? It's pretty nervy of her to say something like that in public, right? In any U.S. classroom today, a teacher who said something like that would be so fired, so fast.
Quote 6
"I am glad to see," she said, "that there are no slimy creatures in my drinking-water this time. If there had been, then something exceptionally unpleasant would have happened to every single member of this class. And that includes you, Miss Honey." (20.15)
When people play pranks on her, the Trunchbull becomes even more determined to be violent and evil. She just takes them as excuses that let her punish other people. She'd be mean anyway, but when someone plays a prank, that makes it even easier for her to unleash her violent side and lash out.
Quote 7
"You are disgusting!" the Trunchbull bellowed. "You are a walking germ-factory! I don't wish to see any more of you today! Go and stand in the corner on one leg with your face to the wall!" (13.30)
Oh now there's a fair punishment. Didn't wash your hands? Go stand on one leg. The Trunchbull seems to get some sort of sick pleasure from trapping kids in various gnarly situations.
Quote 8
"You are finished in this school, young lady!" she shouted. "You are finished everywhere. I shall personally see to it that you are put away in a place where not even the crows can land their droppings on you! You will probably never see the light of day again!" (14.18)
Never see the light of day again? The Trunchbull clearly wants to put this kid in the super Chokey. Here's hoping that's where she ends up when the authorities catch up with her after the end of the novel.
Quote 9
"What the blazes is this?" yelled the Trunchbull. It had shaken her to see her own first name being written like that by an invisible hand. She dropped Wilfred on to the floor. Then she yelled at nobody in particular, "Who's doing this? Who's writing it?" (20.38)
Ah, the beginning of the Trunchbull's grand punishment. It's glorious to watch, don't you think? What we love is how flabbergasted the evil woman is. She's so used to being in control that when the chalk starts writing, she hardly knows what to do with herself, and it's pretty fun to watch. Victory is sweet.